God Must Have Taken the Day Off As Christian Snake Handler Dies After Being Bitten
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A 60-year-old congregant at a rural Kentucky ‘Christian’ church died this past Sunday after being bitten by a rattlesnake that he was handling as part of a bizarre religious rite.
According to WKYT, the Bell County Sheriff’s Office reported that John David Brock was bitten during Sunday morning services at the Mossy Simpson Pentecostal Church. Brock refused medical treatment and died four hours later at his brother’s home in the town of Jenson.
County Coroner Jay Steele said that the death is under investigation and that Brock had other health issues that may have complicated his body’s reaction to the bite.
Brock worked as a miner for 36 years and was an adherent to the Holiness faith. Some Holiness congregations handle snakes as part of their worship, citing a passage from the Christian Bible’s Book of Mark.
True followers of Christ, says Mark 16:18, “will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
Holiness followers believe that God will stop the snakes from biting them, and if they do bite, then God will save them from the poisonous effects of the venom. Clearly God wasn’t paying much attention last Sunday.
Holiness Pastor Jamie Coots died in 2014 after being bitten during a service and refusing medical attention. His son Cody Coots continues the deadly practice at the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro.
Snake handling has been illegal in Kentucky since 1942, but officials mostly look the other way when congregants engage in the practice today.
Holiness churches are mainly confined to the rural south in states like Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama. An estimated 300 churches in the U.S. practice snake-handling as a rite of worship.
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Oh yeah, we have them down here. They even had two seasons of a reality TV show. The Jamie coots mentioned was on that show. These folks are truly out on the fringes of whacked out Jesus freaks. But, I will say they do follow their belief 24/7 which is more than the mainstream Christians do. They do not believe in divorce. If you divorce your are not considered holy enough to participate in church rituals. A sad part of their practice is that they really do not take care of their snakes and they die in captivity.
There was a gospel singer who, along with his daughters, were going to perform at a church in the Tennessee back woods. As they were setting up one of his daughters noticed that they were bringing out boxes of snakes. She poke d her father and said, “Daddy, they are bringing out a bunch of snakes” He looked out into the area around the pulpit and then quietly ask the daughter, “Look around for a back or side door.” She said, “I did, and there ain’t one.” He then said, “Well pick out a place where you think they might want one because we are leaving.”
DARWIN AWARD! Whatever will we do if we ever run out?
Oh, I’m sorry, WHAT was I thinking?!
Apparently when God created the Heaven and Earth He also created shitheads.
…and I know a lot of them 🙂
LOL! Yep. And he created a lot of them I might add. Fortunately most are Republicans…oh wait. Sorry Joe 🙂
The world is full of nutty people and I’m not a bit surprised that this happens primarily in the Deep South.